A Question - Across the Irish Sea

AiAiAi

Folks I'm looking for some advice, pointers and a bit of direction if you can.

I am looking for a challenge to raise funds for charity - something to capture peoples imaginations and not something run of the mill.

I have the idea in my head to Kayak across the Irish sea - Ireland to England or vice a versa.

I am a complete novice - no experience whatsoever.

I'm Fit and active (currently training for my 1st Half Ironman)

So the question I have is...........cant it be done ?

Can someone go from 0 to crossing the Irish sea in a matter of months ?

I am posing the question as if it is a simple one and please don't mistake the simplicity of the question for ignorance or arrogance on my part.

I consider it to be a huge, dangerous, and hard undertaking that will require at a minimum hard work and detailed planning. Not to mention support and money and a million other factors I probably don't even know about yet.

The first part is finding out I suppose and then taking it from there

What are the experienced Kayakers thoughts on this ?




I've googled and read up on crossing the Irish sea at the following links below - to try get some idea as to the scale of what I was thinking about

........advertiser.ie/mayo/article/40033/kayak-around-ireland-for-hospice-
........expeditionkayak.com/completed-expeditions/preseli-challenge-irish-sea-crossing/
........cackletv.com/2009/05/19/across-the-irish-sea-in-11hours-30-mins/
........deepblueseakayaking.com/index.php/links
........performanceseakayak.co.uk/Pages/CrossingsIrishSea.html
........cameron-site.co.uk/nwsk/main-pages/articles/irish_sea_crossing.htm

macadam

Not exactly what your looking for but i believe some of these guys are experienced Kayakers.https://www.facebook.com/oarsofhope?fref=photo

ec18

are you planning on doing it on your own?

Just off the top of my head you'd need some sort of support team (kayak and powerboat based ideally)

a group of paddlers as well to advise you on some of the aspects that can only be learned through experience like sea/weather conditions/ time of year etc.

golden8

You could check out Irish Sea Kayaking Association www.iska.ie There has been some people on that site that have done the cross channel from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead.

There are various sea kayaking groups around Ireland but the above website would be the first port of call, to enable you get paddle fit and have the right equipment that is suitable for you.

Eugene Yes

Any one that can complete a half iron man will have no fitness worries but that is not the main consideration for what you are thinking of doing. To kayak that far you need a level of kayak control and paddling ability that would be difficult to develop in a matter of months. If you are at a low kayaking ability you will need all kinds of support in the form of rescue boats etc and it would be next to impossible. The open sea is not a calm place even on a good day. If you have a high level, all you need is two to three others to paddle with you, some safety gear and a return ferry ticket. Also it is difficult to set an exact date for the crossing as weather conditions and tidal movements are vital and you may not get a window of opportunity for weeks.

AiAiAi

Thank you for the responses so far.

This may be a 2 year project as opposed to one

iska will be the place to start and take it from there

There's a northern crossing that seems a lot shorter than the Hollyhead option but without the experience any endeavor is going to be dangerous

I will update as to how I get on from this point

Thanks again
Jamie